A Shout-Out that pops up in a lot of places. An oddly specific Shout Out.

Apparently multiple authors independently noticed the same detail and decided to reference it in their own story. The fact that so many authors possess such a thorough knowledge of the original story goes to show just how influential the subject of the Shout-Out is.

Stock Shout Outs differ from Stock Parodies in two ways: They aren't played for laughs (beyond the inherent in-joke-esque nature of the common reference point) and they're usually blink-and-you'll-miss-it short.

Since Spaniards Love Mazinger-Z, the Spanish Dub Name Change variant ("¡Puños Fuera!", meaning "Fists Out!") has become so omnipresent that it has been used in movie titles. And when a foreign work features a Rocket Punch, whatever attack name that the character screams is automatically replaced by "¡Puños Fuera!" more often than not.

"It puts the lotion on its skin..." and "I ate his liver with a fava beans and a nice chianti (with the odd sucking sound)" are both often used, humorously, as an exaggerated way of saying that somebody is psychotically crazy.

This one was actually inverted once. See here. JMS, creator of Babylon 5, used the phrase in reference to the series being aired on Wednesdays and would have changed it if he knew it could be seen as a John Landis reference.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. [pause] Time to die.

In any James Bond parody, whether it's the whole basis of the work or a fleeting gag, the villain is very likely to be based on Donald Pleasance's performance, costume and make-up as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice.

Sherlock Holmes in general, but in particular lines like "elementary, my dear Watson", "the game's afoot", and "when you've ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, [however improbable,] must be the truth".

Jean Valjean's prisoner number, #24601, pops up frequently when a series visits a prison.

The "Gimlet" joke that is re-used throughout many of the Discworld novels: it related to a Dwarf with the capacity to really hold your gaze.

JRR Tolkien's wise words on dwarfs in Lord of the Rings also take a repeated hammering. The original Gimli's assertion that there such things as female Dwarfs, only "they are in look and garb so alike to the males that the eyes of Man cannot tell them apart" spawns several books' worth of Shout Outs to dwarfs who favour chain-mail lingerie and take more care with grooming their beards. A Dwarf schoolgirl is allowed into a prestigious boarding school, but must plait her beard with ribbons in the school colours. Then there is Dwarf feminist Cheery Littlebottom, who rebels against all that but cannot bring herself to shave her beard off.

References to the various Tomes of Eldritch Lore of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Necronomicon and Chambers's The King in Yellow (pre-Lovecraft but later absorbed into the mythos) are the standards, but it's not unheard of for De Vermis Mysteriis or Die Unsprechliche Kulten to make appearances.

Live-Action TV

23: Used in a similar way, often in reference to its appearance in conspiracy theories (There even was a whole movie about that.)

Many from Scooby-Doo, but the one that stands out is "I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids." Beat. "And your dog, too." "Dog" is replaced with the appropriate qualifier.

Or "And that stupid dog."

Eyes popping out of their sockets and enormous rolling tongues will often be a shout-out to Tex Avery.

Uncategorized

A113: A reference to the California Institute for the Arts, specifically the classroom for first-year graphic design. This one is common in Pixar films (witness "special order A113" in WALL•E), but Cal Arts grad and Pixar stalwart Brad Bird also included references in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

Someone sticking out both hands and making the V-sign with them will immediately bring up images of Richard Nixon.

Fiction about boxing (and possibly any sort of combat sport in general) will almost always contain some sort of variation on "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee". In a similar vein, expect the protagonist to do the Ali Shuffle at some point too.

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